Santina Hines, an officer with the Alcoholic Beverage Operator Office, fingerprints Nathan Schwabat at the Bossier City police station with the LiveScan, a digital finger print machine.

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Taxpayer dollars spent on police technology are meant to pay dividends in safety and efficiency.

Budgets are tight, and hiring levels for police aren't likely to boom anytime soon. Instead, police officials say money spent on the technology to quickly identify, track and record is the best bet for increasing efficiency.

"Could you do the job without the best technology? Yes. Would you be as effective? No," said Sgt. Jay Johnson, of Bossier City Police Information Services. "There's more technology being used on our side than ever before because we're accessing information constantly." ...